Lessons & Units

Fed up of students wanting only the latest, trendiest gadget (usually from Apple at our school), I created this lesson to get students to more rationally and thoroughly assess a range of gadgets. One of the intended outcomes is to encourage students to consider devices at different price points, with the aim of seeing what represents good value, where cut corners effect the whole experience, and what features are just marketing fluff.

Students could undertake this task individually, or in small groups, but my preference is to have them do it as a whole class, with the hope of promoting more discussion and passion about what is valuable, and what is not. The following instructions, included in the spreadsheet, should guide students in completing the spreadsheet:

Decide on the 10 criteria you wish to judge each device on, or use the ones included. The criteria must be the same for all devices. An example would be "Screen Size".

Assign each criteria a weight according to it's importance. Total weight must be equal to 100.

This lesson used to be part of a unit which was dropped from the Year 7-9 ICT Course due to time constraints. However, the content is so powerful that I decided to include it, not as a unit, but as a single lesson. The aim …

This lesson aims to introduce students to the concept of misleading images, and to try and engender in students a certain skepticism when interacting with media. This lesson could potentially be used in a range of subjects including ICT, Media, History, Theory of Knowledge, PSHE/Pastoral …

After 3 years refining the Year 7-9 ICT Course, this unit is my final addition, and one which I feel rounds out the essential ICT skill that students need to have going forward. Although designed to be short, the unit aims to raise some …

One of my ideals for education is for students to have more choice in terms of what and how they study. It has been very hard trying to cover what I feel are the essentials, whilst giving students some choice. In the past I have …

This is rewrite of a unit which I really loved running, but somehow never knew how to assess. I was so unhappy with the assessment that I actually stopped teaching it, despite really wanting to keep it running. The addition of the Self Assessment Guide…

With the massive rise of ICT use in everyday living, it is vital that students have a chance to discuss issues relating to digital citizenship (identity, privacy, participation, credibility, authorship and ownership) and security.

One of my main aims as a teacher is to get students ready to do real work for real clients. In a sense, then, this unit represents a graduation of my students: after three years on the Year 7-9 ICT Course they are now ready …

What makes us different to other species? Why have we managed to dominate the earth when we have no natural defenses? These are the questions which lead me to design this unit, which looks into the past, present and future of ICT, whilst asking students …